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Student Achievement

Student Achievement

Lee University evaluates success with respect to student achievement according to our stated mission to help students develop knowledge, appreciation, understanding, ability, and skills which will prepare them for responsible Christian living in a complex world.

The criteria we use to evaluate student success includes graduation, retention, job placement rates, general education testing, major field tests, and nationally normed self-report studies. Data analysis is part of our Institutional Effectiveness process, as well, and includes review by appropriate faculty and administrative staff. Through these practices, we ensure student success that is appropriate for an institution of higher learning.

Graduation rates are collected by the Office of Institutional Research and provided to pertinent administrators for decision-making purposes. The wider mission of Lee, discussed in the Extended Statement of Institutional Purpose, involves serving a wide variety of students from different backgrounds and with varying levels of academic ability. This includes underprepared students as well as high-achieving students. Because of this, our benchmarks are based on the national averages for each criteria, where available.

Current 6-year graduation rate: 52%

Average 6-year graduation rate (past 5 years): 52%

Our most recent rates are equivalent to our 5-year averages and are comparable with national rates for 4-year institutions with high acceptance rates (NCES 2014 shows the national 6-year average graduation rate (2009 cohort) as 61.7% for 4-year nonprofit institutions with acceptance rates of 75% to 89.9%. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d16/tables/dt16_326.10.asp). Click the images to enlarge.

Retention rates are collected by the Office of Institutional Research and provided to pertinent administrators for decision-making purposes. The wider mission of Lee, discussed in the Extended Statement of Institutional Purpose, involves serving a wide variety of students, from different backgrounds and with varying levels of academic ability. This includes underprepared students as well as high-achieving students. Because of this, our benchmarks are based on the national averages for each criteria, where available.

Freshman retention rate Fall 2016 to Fall 2017: 81%

Average freshman retention rate (past 5 years): 78%

Our most recent rates exceed our 5-year averages and are comparable with national rates for 4-year institutions with high acceptance rates. (NCES 2016 shows the 2014-2015 national retention rate as 79.0% for first-time degree-seeking undergraduates at 4-year nonprofit institutions with acceptance rates of 75%-89.9%. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d16/tables/dt16_326.30.asp?current=yes) Click images to enlarge.

Job placement rates are collected from graduating seniors and 1- and 5-year alums. The Center for Calling and Career at Lee University conducts a survey of graduating seniors the month prior to graduation regarding employment status after graduation. For all three terms in 2013, the average rate for having received or accepted job offers prior to graduation or for continuing education is 53%. Another 29% had applied for jobs and another 7% were volunteering or traveling after graduation. Of those who had received or accepted job offers, 83% said the job was related to their degree. According to the most recent HEDS Alumni Survey, shown in the chart below, by one year after graduation almost all alumni (who responded) had some type of employment or service. Click to enlarge images.

As an institution that values liberal arts education, Lee University is interested in general education competencies of graduating seniors. Annually, the institution uses a variety of assessment tools to measure these competencies. One commonly used measure of general education knowledge and skills is the ETS Proficiency Profile (formerly the Academic Profile). Lee has consistently scored above the national mean in total score and in subscale scores of different skill areas on the Proficiency Profile. The charts below display the most recent set of Lee scores with the national mean comparison and 5-year longitudinal data. Click the images to enlarge.

Most academic programs, where national major field tests are available, administer these tests as part of their annual outcomes assessment. Lee University participates in the following major field tests offered by ETS: Business, English (Literature), Mathematics, Music, Political Science, and Sociology and the following field exams offered by ACAT: Biology, Health Science, History, Human Development and Psychology. The institution compares favorably with the national norms (Lee’s benchmark) for most areas. One stand-out example of student success comes from the 2013-2014 administrations of the ACAT Major Field Test, where, on average, senior Biology students scored in the 92nd percentile range compared with their respective reference group. Click images to enlarge.

Student engagement represents two critical features of collegiate quality. The first is the amount of time and effort students put into their studies and other educationally purposeful activities. The second is how the institution deploys its resources and organizes the curriculum and other learning opportunities to get students to participate in activities that decades of research studies show are linked to student learning.

Through its student survey, The College Student Report, the National Survey of Student Engagement or NSSE (http://nsse.iub.edu/) annually collects information at hundreds of four-year colleges and universities about student participation in programs and activities that institutions provide for their learning and personal development. The results provide an estimate of how undergraduates spend their time and what they gain from attending college. To focus discussions about the importance of student engagement and to guide institutional improvement efforts, NSSE created 10 Engagement Indicators within four broad themes: Academic Challenge, Learning with Peers, Experiences with Faculty, and Campus Environment.

The table below compares average scores for Lee students with those in our comparison groups.

Lee University’s recent success belies its humble beginnings almost a century ago. In 1918, the Church of God of Cleveland, TN began a small Bible institute of twelve students and one teacher. The school grew and became Lee College, with a Bible college and junior college on its current site, in 1948. Twenty years later, Lee received accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools as a four-year liberal arts college. In 1997, Lee made the transition from college to comprehensive liberal arts university granting graduate degrees.

Lee University is nestled in a peaceful community in southeastern Tennessee. Cleveland is less than thirty minutes away from Chattanooga, home of the Tennessee Aquarium, the Incline Railway, the Southern Belle Riverboat, the Chattanooga Choo-Choo and, of course, the famous Rock City atop Lookout Mountain. Cleveland is just 20 minutes from the Ocoee River, sight of the 1996 Olympic White Water events. Students can enjoy endless outdoor recreational opportunities. For quick getaways, our campus is also near to Knoxville, the Smoky Mountains and popular Gatlinburg area, and a short commute to Atlanta, GA.

Lee's enrollment has more than quadrupled from 1,214 (Fall 1986) to 5,370 (Fall 2017) under the leadership of Dr. Paul Conn. This places Lee as the 5th largest in undergraduate enrollment among the member institutions of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. During that same period, average ACT scores of entering freshmen have increased to 24, and faculty has grown and diversified in order to offer a rapidly expanding slate of academic programs. Since 1986, Lee has added twenty-nine major buildings necessary to serve the students.

Lee University competes in NCAA Division II as a member of the Gulf South Athletic Conference, which includes teams from Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. Lee’s application was approved in July of 2012 to begin the three year membership process for NCAA DII. Lee University offers varsity competition for women in lacrosse, basketball, tennis, golf, softball, soccer, volleyball, cross-country and track and field and for men in baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis, golf, cross country and track and field. Lee’s athletic programs adhere strictly to all university, conference and national regulations involving sports and academics for student athletes. All events are free to students upon presentation of a current identification card.

In 1983 the Lee Board of Directors and President Ray Hughes approved changing the college’s mascot name from the Vikings to Flames, much to the dismay of many Lee students and alumni. The president and board were seeking to brighten the entire look and image of the athletic program. Lee’s Paul Dana Walker Arena was being completely upgraded and the basketball teams were playing their games off-campus at Cleveland State Community College. Dr. Hughes and the board viewed this as a perfect time to change the mascot. In those games at CSCC, lighters were often used by many of the fans to show the spirit of the Flames.

When the teams moved back into Walker Arena, a mascot named Sparky (a person dressed in a doggish-like costume) was used for some two or three years. The costume was very hot and volunteers to wear the costume became very hard to find. Sparky slowly but surely faded away.

Over the past 20 years the logo of the Flames has been re-designed on a few occasions and has become a solid brand of Lee University athletics, but another mascot like Sparky has never reappeared.

Lee University is sponsored by the Church of God International Offices, Cleveland, TN. As a Christian university operated under the auspices of the Church of God, Lee University is firmly committed to the conservative, evangelical, Pentecostal religious position of its sponsoring denomination.

The Academic Sector of Lee University is made up of six colleges and schools: the College of Arts & Sciences, the Helen DeVos College of Education, the School of Music, the School of Religion and the School of Nursing, School of Business. There are 14 academic departments and 7 graduate areas of study within the colleges and schools. Lee University offers 49 on-campus undergraduate majors in 129 on-campus programs of study.

Alongside traditional on-campus programs, Lee University’s Division of Adult Learning (DAL) offers fully-online and hybrid programs (at the Cleveland campus) with today’s adult learner in mind. Never sacrificing convenience for quality, the DAL offers undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs in an accredited, Christ-centered setting. This commitment to both academic excellence and unwavering faith is the reason Lee was just named as one of the top 100 online universities by U.S. News and World Report.

The Global Perspectives Program is one of the most unique and exciting opportunities that Lee University offers because it requires students to travel and to study a culture different from their own. Every year, Lee offers between 25 and 30 global perspectives trips, led by our very own credentialed faculty, as an economical and rewarding cross-cultural experience.

Service-learning at Lee University is directed by the Leonard Center and is designed to prepare students for Christian citizenship through reflective community interactions that encourage a commitment to the ideals of service, benevolence, civic virtue, and social justice.

Lee University’s community service program was recently ranked among the top 100 in the country by the Corporation for National and Community Service, an independent federal agency tasked with fostering an ethic of volunteerism and service in America. The corporation not only placed Lee University on the inaugural President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, it also recognized the school’s efforts “with distinction.” Less than 100 schools were named to the honor roll “with distinction” for general community service, and the ranking places Lee alongside such notable schools as Duke, Purdue, LSU, and Stanford.

TueFeb20, 2018

Faculty Spotlight

DR J. MATTHEW MELTON

Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, Professor of Communication

Dr. J. Matthew Melton is the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and director of the Kairos Scholars Honors Program. He came to Lee in 1995 after a year teaching at George Fox College in Newberg, Ore. Before that, he was a doctoral fellow at Regent University, where he received a PhD in rhetoric and an MA in journalism. During his time at Lee, Melton has taught journalism, communication and humanities, served as department chair for Communication & the Arts ('97-'02) and as director of Student Publications ('97-'05).

Among other prior careers, Melton spent three years as an educator in Cali, Colombia where he helped found and administer a church-based primary school. Melton’s passions include the humanities and all forms of mass media. He also continues to research, write and speak about film, popular culture and the rhetorical dimensions of politics, religion and technology.

He and his wife, Leslie, have been married since 1985 and have one son, Nicholas.

Academics

The Academic Sector is made up of six colleges and schools: the College
of Arts & Sciences, the Helen DeVos College of Education, the School of Business, the
School of Music, the School of Religion, and the School of Nursing.